About Note Cards
All the note card PDF files are free to download to print as many, as often, or however you want. The real benefit is not that these files make cheap note cards; it’s that the note cards are unique and can be very high quality, printed by a commercial digital printer, or by your own desktop printer. The note cards are called a quarter fold note card size, approximately 5½ x 4¼ or 5½ x 4¼ inches. Envelops to fit may be found at most office supply stores or some discount department stores. The same PDF file is used for either quarter fold note cards (printed on one side of a sheet of paper, then folded twice) or for card stock note cards printed two cards to one sheet of card stock (by double printing, then cut, then folded). These files are designed to print well by a digital commercial printer. Download the PDF and deliver it to your favorite friendly digital commercial printer. In Springfield, Illinois, I use Capitol Blueprint, but any such printer will do. Many office supply stores also offer commercial digital printing. It is likely that the printer will know how to make which kind of note card you want, either on paper or on card stock. The printing can be both good quality and very economical. File size considered, put the file on a Floppy A or CD and go make your order, explaining what you want. For some commercial printers you may email the file with your order. As mentioned, you may also print these files on your desktop; the file downloaded to your computer first is a good idea. You may delete it later, of course. There are a few considerations regarding home printing, especially for printing front and back on cardstock. This brief instruction set may be printed for future reference.
Please continue for basic instructions. A glance or two will not harm the experienced.
Basic instructions to pint a Note Card on your home desktop printer.
(The starting point.)
To print from the opened Adobe PDF file, first orient the page to look like the image below with the image to the top.
Yes, the image will be upside down or sideways.
(Short) End
Rotate the PDF file so that the Image comes to this area—upside down or sideways here or here.
(Long) Side
(Long) Side
(Short) End
This is done because most home printers print closer to the top than to the bottom.
Yes, the images look upside down or sideways. If not appearing at the top, rotating the page is a control on the Adobe Reader. Many printers do not print as close to the bottom edge of the paper. When printing from the Adobe Reader format there are numerous things to do to fine tune your print, at least for the more up to date versions of Adobe Reader. All of your printer controls are likely available (see “Properties”). For the most part, “medium” settings will do fine. Remember these note card are for printing on regular paper (though 24 pound paper is a nice touch) or regular card stock—not photo paper. For your particular printer, you might be able to choose less ink, faster drying, Print in Gray Scale Black Only Image Enhancement (otherwise your printer may “read” a color tone into the image), or use warmer or cooler tones, etc. It’s worth a look. From Adobe you may choose various resizing states; use “None”, adjust only if you are loosing part of an image in the margin. At first, select “Documents and Stamps” or text with image. Other controls may be useful. Experimenting for the best result is possibly worthwhile. Keep in mind that these files are set to print at black and white commercial digital printing standards; it is very likely your desktop printer will work well for the purpose. So try a few adjustments if success is not quite instant. If you are printing only one side of a sheet of paper as for quarter fold cards, it’s very easy. To fold quarter fold cards, made by printing on one side of one sheet of paper, lay the printed page image side down and away from you longwise. Fold the page in half, bottom end of the page to the top end; fold the result in half one side to the other. Or just look at it and figure it out. Vertical or horizontal format note cards fold the same way. There, you have a quarter fold note card.
One little trick is that it may be better to align the corners with the paper in a “roll”, holding firmly, and then “work” the paper to the crease.
Another little trick for folds of any type is to run a clean round side of a common drinking glass over the fold to make it crisp. Be sure to firmly hold the aligned corners stable while doing so.
Printing on Card Stock
The PDF orientation is the same on the monitor as before. Also the same “normal” printer setting apply. Some printers have a paper selection for “card stock” or thicker paper. Remember that card stock is regular surface paper; it is not photo paper. Two note cards print from the same file as quarter fold cards by printing twice to a single sheet of card stock, then cutting the page in half to get two note cards. It’s only a matter of how the printing is done. The page orientation on the monitor is the same. What changes is the way the paper feeds into the printer for the second printing. For printing two cards on a sheet of card stock which is then cut in half and each half folded, there is an easy trick or two to help figure it all out. For most note cards, especially those with a printed script message inside, both sides of the card stock will be printed. To figure out the orientation for the paper feed on the second printing run, it may be helpful to make two small but different glyphs in the first end of the paper to go into the printer on the first printing. Make one mark in the extreme upper right margin area of the paper. Then turning over side to side, make a slightly different mark in the same area, ^ and ^ will work nicely, as will any two slightly different arrows.
Cut or fold after printing.
Printing on both sides of the card stock, with the image oriented to the opposite end of each the opposite sides, will work for note cards that have a printed message on the inside of the note card. So, it is better to learn to orient the paper that way. Obviously the card stock feed into the printer will be reoriented for the second printing. Yes, it will work on a printer that only prints on one side at a time, just properly reorient the card stock for the second printing. Post cards print by double printing on card stock, though obviously cut rather than folded. It is only a matter of figuring out the double printing method. Printing half page note cards is fairly obvious. For half page note cards with a message on the inside, use the print odd pages or print even pages on the Adobe Reader to get the front or inside of the note card. Again, the arrows in the corners will help understand the proper orientation of the card stock feed into your printer for the inside message; this reorientation may seem different for various kinds of note cards or post cards. Expect a little trial and error. Expect a little drying time before the second printing run on the same page or folding. Again, these Note Card PDF files will likely work very well for printing your own good quality note cards. http://home.comcast.net/~wm.s.collins